Financial advice for FIFO and mining professionals

Why is financial planning different for FIFO workers?

Three things make it different: income is high but concentrated into a limited number of years, it is variable because bonuses, allowances and overtime move with the roster and the commodity cycle, and rosters make ordinary financial administration genuinely difficult. Planning built for a steady salary over forty years does not fit any of that.

The defining feature is not the money. It is the shape of the money. A steady professional salary rises gradually and continues for decades. A resources income can be very high for eight or twelve or fifteen years, and then change abruptly — by choice, by injury, by roster change, or because a project ends.

That shape has one implication above all others: the plan has to be built for the period after the income, not just during it. Very few plans in this market are.

Can FIFO workers claim the zone tax offset?

Generally no. Since 1 July 2015 the zone tax offset has not been available to fly-in fly-out workers whose usual place of residence is outside the relevant zone. Working in a remote area does not qualify a person — living there does. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood entitlements in the industry.

This catches people out every year, often because a colleague claimed it before 2015 and the story has been passed along since. The rule changed specifically to exclude FIFO arrangements, and the test is where a person ordinarily lives, not where they work.

What is worth checking properly, with an accountant, is the treatment of allowances, travel, tools and protective equipment. Those vary by employer and by arrangement in a way that generic information cannot resolve, and they are where the genuine deductions usually sit.

Should I pay down the mortgage or put money into super?

Neither answer is universal. Paying down debt gives a certain, after-tax return equal to the interest rate and improves flexibility. Superannuation contributions are concessionally taxed but locked away until preservation age. The right balance depends on the interest rate, the marginal tax rate, and how much liquidity the plan needs before the income window closes.

For a high marginal rate and a modest mortgage, the arithmetic usually favours contributions. For a large mortgage and an uncertain roster, it usually favours flexibility. Most households need some of both, and the common mistake is picking one and following it religiously for a decade without recalculating.

One factor specific to this audience deserves weight: preservation. Money in superannuation is not available until preservation age, which is 60. Where a FIFO career is likely to end at 50, a plan that puts everything into super creates a ten-year gap with nothing to live on. That gap is the single most common structural flaw we see in this group.

What can I do with unused super contribution cap room?

Unused concessional contribution cap from the previous five years can be carried forward where total superannuation balance was under $500,000 at the prior 30 June. Unused amounts expire after five years. Because resources income is often variable, many workers accumulate substantial unused room in lower-earning years without realising it exists.

This matters more for a variable income than for a steady one. A year off, a period between projects, a stint on a lower roster or a career that started later all create room — and that room can then be used in a high-earning year when the tax value of doing so is greatest.

It sits in an ATO record, it is not flagged to the member, and it expires quietly. It is also one of the few remaining areas where the timing of a decision, rather than the decision itself, drives most of the outcome.

One caution worth stating: for higher incomes, additional tax under Division 293 may apply to concessional contributions. That does not make contributing wrong, but it changes the arithmetic.

How much super will my employer actually pay?

The superannuation guarantee rate is 12%. It is not necessarily payable on an entire income — there is a maximum contribution base, $270,830 for 2026–27, above which an employer is not required to contribute, though many do. High earners frequently assume employer contributions scale with total earnings — above that base it depends on the employer, so check your payslip.

Worth checking rather than assuming: whether contributions are calculated on ordinary time earnings only, how overtime and allowances are treated under a particular arrangement, and whether the contribution is actually being paid at the required frequency. Underpayment is not rare in the industry and it compounds silently.

What insurance do FIFO workers need to think about?

Insurance is the area where FIFO and mining work has the greatest impact and the least attention. Occupational classification can affect premiums, exclusions and eligibility. Definitions matter enormously — whether a total and permanent disability policy uses an "own occupation" or "any occupation" test can determine whether a claim on a specific physical capability is paid at all.

This is the most consequential section on the page, because the entire plan rests on an income that depends on physical capability and site access.

When we review existing cover, these are the things we examine:

• How the occupation is classified, and whether the classification on the policy still matches what the person actually does. People change roles and the policy is rarely updated.
• Whether cover is "own occupation" or "any occupation". For a role with specific physical or medical clearance requirements, the difference is not academic.
• What is excluded. Some default cover held inside superannuation carries exclusions or limits relevant to heavy industry, and the exclusion tends to be discovered at claim time.
• Whether income protection reflects variable income. A policy based on a base salary may not reflect earnings that include substantial allowances and overtime.
• Whether cover survives leaving the employer. Group cover generally does not, and it can be difficult to replace later if health has changed.

We do not classify or underwrite any of this. What we do is make sure the questions get asked before a claim rather than during one.

What happens if my roster changes or I am made redundant?

This is the risk to plan for rather than the one to worry about. Rosters change, projects finish and cycles turn. A plan that only works while the current roster and current commodity price continue is not a plan — it is an assumption. Liquidity is what turns a change of circumstances into an inconvenience rather than a crisis.

Redundancy and termination payments have their own tax treatment, and the timing of a payment relative to a financial year and to any contribution strategy can materially change the outcome. That is a conversation worth having when it becomes foreseeable, rather than after the paperwork is signed.

The practical protection is unglamorous: enough accessible cash to absorb a gap, debt at a level that survives a lower income, and contributions structured so that reducing them does not break anything.

What if I take a job overseas?

Resources careers frequently move people to Singapore, Jakarta, Houston or Dubai. Tax residency, insurance and superannuation all change, and where there is a self-managed super fund, the fund's own residency status can be at risk if central management and control moves offshore.

The SMSF residency issue is the one with the most severe consequences, and it is best handled before departure rather than after.

What do FIFO workers most often get wrong?

Four patterns recur: spending rises to match the income rather than a share of it being allocated deliberately; wealth concentrated in property bought near the top of a cycle; insurance never reviewed against the actual occupation; and no plan for the years between the end of the career and preservation age at 60.

A fifth, less often named: doing the work for a specific purpose — a house, a business, a date to stop — and then continuing well past it because the purpose was never written down. The rosters are hard. It is worth being deliberate about what they are buying.

How do we work with FIFO clients?

We work around rosters — meetings by video, on swings, or on days off, and correspondence that does not assume availability in business hours. Fees are agreed with you before any work starts, with any life insurance commission disclosed in our Financial Services Guide. The first conversation is about how you want to live, and how long you intend to do this for.